Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Another marker of the GOP's long fall - no more Jews

WASHINGTON - The defeat of incumbent Norm Coleman in the drawn-out Minnesota Senate race leaves Republicans without a Jewish senator for the first time in half a century.

Coleman's departure comes two months after the GOP's other Jewish member, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, switched parties to become a Democrat...

In the House, Eric Cantor of Virginia ... is the only Jewish Republican in the 435-member body. That's down from eight Jewish GOP members who served in the House during the 1990s.

The National Jewish Democratic Council lists 30 Jewish Democrats now serving in the House. The Senate will have 13 Jewish members as of next week when Franken, Coleman's rival in Minnesota, is sworn in. That's 11 Democrats and two independents who normally vote with the Democrats.

Ira Forman, CEO of the National Jewish Democratic Council, said the sharp drop in the number of Jewish Republicans in Congress paralleled the party's shift to the right. "It's a reflection of where the Republican Party has gone," he said. "It's left the Jewish community pretty cold."...

So how many Catholics are left in the GOP? There must be a few or else the GOP would be an almost 100% WASP shop now.

I think Minnesota has the only Muslim Representative (definitely Democrat), and I'm pretty sure the Democrats have all the de facto (dare we speak it?) atheists.

For Jewish representatives the House and Senate ratios are now 30:1 and 13:0. Pretty severe ratios, especially the latter.